On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Police Department released video footage showing an LAPD officer running a red light in an LAPD SUV patrol car at the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and Gower Street in Hollywood while a pedestrian carrying a guitar crossed the street in a clearly marked crosswalk.
As the LAPD officer moved northbound towards the pedestrian with their emergency lights on, the driver seemingly swerved to the right, presumably to avoid the pedestrian.
Moments later, another driver in a Nissan Altima, traveling westbound towards a green light, T-boned the back fender of the patrol car. The collision sent the backend of the LAPD patrol car flying into the pedestrian crossing the street, launching them into a Mercedes Benz, which was stopped at a red light, before the patrol car ran them over.
“After the crash, officers immediately requested rescue ambulances for the injured parties,” according to an LAPD statement. The pedestrian, identified as a 27-year-old resident of London, was later transferred to a hospital, where they were pronounced dead.
When asked if the officers were responding to a call for service or an emergency, LAPD Captain Kelly Muniz told L.A. TACO: “The officers were trying to catch up to a car to determine if they were going to conduct enforcement activity or make a traffic stop.”
Muniz declined to identify the officer who was driving the patrol SUV.
“We will not be releasing the names of the officers as this incident does not meet the criteria to do so,” said Muniz.
This tragic death is a reminder of the dangers of being a pedestrian in Los Angeles. In 2023, for the first time in two decades, there were more than 300 traffic fatalities, according to an analysis. Meaning there were more traffic deaths than homicides in the city.
